Nature vs Nurture

Biological Theories have been related to crime for a long time. The Biological Theory talks about how one’s brain has an impact on committing crime or not. Dr. Jim Fallon, a neuroscientist from California talks about the biological influences in a brain. He believes that the combination of three major aspects can determine whether someone is psychopathic or not. Fallon states a combination of genes, damage to the person 's brain and the environment surrounding the individual will have the biggest impact on a person (Fallon, 2009). A real world example of the biological theory in full effect was the crimes of David Berkowitz, aka “Son of Sam. Berkowitz was accused and found guilty of killing over 6 people in New York City. After being convicted and locked up for a few years, studies had shown that Berkowitz had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Berkowitz also claimed that his neighbor’s dog, Sam had told him to do the killings as well (Biography). Comparing the Biological theory to my own life was pretty simple because there is a genetic factor that runs in my dad’s side and that is tempers. Tempers tend to flare fairly easy, and luckily so far there has no issues with the law, however like Fallon had said, with the right combination, anyone is possible to commit a crime at any time. I feel like in a biological theory, this would have a major impact on my life

Psychological factors also play a role in these disorders. According to Rosenberg and Kosslyn (2011), classical and operant conditioning do not seem to have the same effects for persons with psychopathic traits. If one is unable to learn from

1. Some people have argued that the Johns Hopkins psychologist used this opportunity as an experiment to test his nurture theory of gender identity. What are the expected results of this experiment, assuming that the nurture theory is valid?

In today’s society, violence occurs every minute somewhere in some shape or form. It continues to be a plague that causes humans humility, pain, and death. Both the scientific and criminal justice fields have been stumped for years by the question of “where does the influence of violence come from?” Nature versus nurture has always been one of the most prevalent arguments relating to this topic. The nature argument is based on the belief that an individual’s biology/DNA contributes to their behavior, where the nurture argument believes that the environment one is exposed to is what actually influences their behavior. According to Hickey, biological positivism was the method of applying the scientific method to the task of determining who was a criminal (48).

One of the first things that come to people’s minds when they hear the word psychopath is Ted Bundy. Bundy spent most of the 1970’s killing 30 or more young woman who happened to resemble his ex-girlfriend in some way. The exact time and number of Bundy’s kills will likely never be known. Ted Bundy is what is considered a successful psychopath. Psychopathy is a form of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Not every person with ASPD is a psychopath, but every psychopath has ASPD. No one knows exactly what causes this disorder, but there has been some speculation over the decades. The two main ideas is that an genetic influence causes psychopathy or an environmental influence causes psychopathy. The neurotransmitter MAOA has been linked to several brain structural differences in the brains of a psychopath when compared to the brain of a non-psychopathic person. Multiple studies have linked childhood abuse to the psychopathy development. Both of these causes have been shown to influence psychopathy development but it is my hypothesis that genetics hold

While watching the news a report comes in that a serial killer has been brought down and arrested. Later, a group of news reporters come up and start  talking about how this serial killer got his infamous past, killing five people in gruesome ways. One of the news reporters stated that this man become a serial killer because he was mentally handicapped due to his genes when another reporter states that it was due to the abusive environment the serial killer was in during childhood. These two reporters got into such a huge argument that the channel had to go to a break to cool them down.  These two reporters believe that they are right and the other is wrong, but what if both of them were right at the same time. The Nature vs Nurture debate all started at 1869 by the man named Francis Galton, where he proclaim the question  was human action due to the environment or genes of a human being. This argument has always been black or white, that it could only be  Nurture or  Nature. While this was true during the time, further research has shown that it is not just one but both looking through all the evidence. Human action is affected both by the environment and genes because of epigenetics and  evolution.

For a long period in history, psychopaths were believed to be possessed by demons and spirits and were routinely exercised to expel such creatures. As science and clinical experiences progressed, people have learned that the brain is wired in multiple different ways, some in which lead to the negative “disorder” dubbed psychopathy (Telles-Correia and Sampaio). Yet, the popular theory that ‘psychopathy is purely genetic is not entirely true. Both genetic and environmental aspects cause psychopathy, and go hand-in-hand in some cases.

Is biology-making people serial killers? "One must feel sorry for those who have strange tastes, but never insult them. Their wrong is Nature 's too; they are no more responsible for having come into the world with tendencies unlike ours than are we for being born bandy-legged or well-proportioned” (Woolaston 2015) Marquis de Sade held an interesting view of people. Most humans have their own moral compass, most all differ from one another. Certain aspects of the mind control animal propensities and more in depth emotion; such as empathy (Solano). An extreme cause for certain insane acts is head trauma. A study of 15 inmates developed head trauma prior to their crime. There was neuropsychological testing for these inmates and it exemplified that their brains were indeed affected by trauma (Solano, 2015). Research shows that serial killers do not commute and use emotions in general. This would explain why they have such a microscopic understanding of empathy within themselves. It would be a leading cause for why they kill, rape, and abuse. In ‘The Stranger Beside Me’ novel by Ann Rule she elaborates of her and Bundy’s friendship of 17 years, and how they worked side by side in a Crisis Clinic in Seattle; Both of them answered the calls to aid emotionally unstable people. Rule also worked alongside the police force and documented police cases. Little did Rule know that Bundy was the culprit for all these attacks. Rule was fooled by Bundy’s

This documentary specifies that there is no easy answer to what is going on inside the mind of killers, and we cannot simply place these individuals into “neat diagnostic boxes” that explain why their actions turned so violent. However, the investigators present research studying different avenues regarding ways to “predict” the likelihood that an individual will commit violent crime, will maintaining that no method is perfect. Throughout the presentation, viewers are offered mountains of research highlighting a mix of nature and nurture ranging from neurologists from Harvard studying brain patterns affected by genetics, to psychologists studying maternal care and attachment during infancy.

I became aware of what I wanted to pursue after reading about a teenager who had been stabbed in area close to where I live and I found myself asking what would drive someone to do that? One of the three subjects I take is psychology and one of the subtopics is the nature or nurture debate. I began to consider whether the stabber was born evil or just a product of their environment. I read a book called ' ice man: confessions of a Mafia contract killer' by Philip Carlo. The ice man showed a complete lack of remorse for his victims. The ice man's father and mother also showed a lack of empathy through their acts of abuse against him, therefore it could be argued that his lack of empathy is biological. However, it could also be argued that he

No one can be certain whether nature or nurture is the cause for criminal behavior. However, research has stated that it is more often an interaction between genes and the environment that predicts criminal behavior (Jones, 2005). Through a biological perspective, it is determined that criminal behavior is due to genetics and/or neurological conducts. It concludes that criminals are born due to their criminal traits being passed down through genetic or chromosomal mutation. Another explanation of criminal behavior within the biological perspective are the neurochemicals within our brains and body. There many regulated chemicals in the brain that determines thought process, perception and action. Like the arguments for genetic and chromosomal mutation, any abnormal anomalies or chemical imbalance can heavily impact behavior (Schram, 2018). This goes for any damages to some parts of the brain that controls emotions, reason and logic. Problems with the biological perspective are the following: 1. It provide little explanations for a small of minority of offenders with specific conditions (Levitt, 2013). 2. Disregard the effect of environmental influences and life experiences that also impact behavior. 3. Since criminality is based on biology, it is unchangeable, therefore, no one is to be blamed for their actions. Lastly, 4. Famous studies on biological factors of criminality (ex: the twin, family and adoption studies) maintained an intertwined relationship with social

Does the environment that one grows up in contribute to alcoholism or is alcoholism determined by genetics? It wasn’t until 1991 that alcoholism was considered both a medical and psychiatric disease by the American Medical Association. Alcoholism is defined in the dictionary as a chronic disorder characterized by dependence on alcohol, repeated excessive use of alcoholic beverages, the development of withdrawal symptoms on reducing or ceasing intake, morbidity that may include cirrhosis of the liver, and decreased ability to function socially and vocationally. (dictionary.com). It is also defined as an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness

This data provides support for the nature theory, backing up the idea that emotional disorders are strictly from birth. In addition, though the majority of serial killers lack education, they still possess wit and cleverness, making them naturally candidates for violent behavior. Even though they lack schooling, a major component of nurture, serial killers tend to naturally have components that make them ideal for being a killer. Also, twins have strikingly similar behaviors, even when reared apart. Identical twins share 100% of their DNA and fraternal twins share 50% of their DNA (Powell), and are created in the same womb simultaneously, providing optimal conditions for determining if DNA is the ultimate factor in personality development.

To me, there is no such thing as being born as a killer, that’s just a mind thing that people have. Again, using the example of lying, I also think that lying is a trait that you pick up from your environment. From my own experience, I never started lying until I started hanging around my best friend every day. She would tell her mother a lie about where she would be and it worked, so I started doing the same. But, as I got older and mature I learned and started telling the truth again.

Both Nature and Nurture have a strong influence in our behavior. Nature is something that you can’t control. I heard about a family that adopted a baby boy, they taught him how to behave in a proper way and they gave him a good education. But as he grew up he was becoming harder to control and he was a violent guy. This family started asking themselves what was happening to their son, they were sure they raised him good. So they went to ask the people that gave them the kid about his real parents, and an investigation was started. They found out that his real dad was in prison for murder, and his mom had been one of the victims. Maybe this boy acted like that because it was in his genes, his nature was stronger than his nurture. But nurture